Optical switching apparatus, optical transmission system and method of setting up for optical signal route

ABSTRACT

In an optical switching apparatus having redundantly-arranged optical switches, a route switching operation mode, an autonomic redundant switching operation mode and a compulsory redundant switching operation mode are discriminated from one another so that these operation modes are prevented from being executed at the same time, and also proper mask processing is performed at every switching operation mode. Therefore, emission of an undesired alarm and thus occurrence of malfunction when each switching operation is carried out can be prevented.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an optical switching apparatus and anoptical transmission system using the same, and a method of setting upfor an optical signal route in the optical switching apparatus.

In order to support rapid increase in data traffic represented by theInternet and also rapid increase in demands for multimediacommunications for images/sounds/data, transmission lines andtelecommunication nodes constituting communication networks are promotedto be higher speed operation and larger capacity operation, andintroduction of optical communication apparatuses using optical fibersand optical signals is also promoted.

Further, optical switching apparatuses called as an optical crossconnect (hereinafter referred to as “OXC”) and an optical add-dropmultiplexing apparatus (hereinafter referred to as “OADM”) with whichoptical signals are subjected to the switching processing such astransmission route switching/line switching, etc. without converting theoptical signals to electrical signals are considered to be practicallyused in place of a conventional communication apparatus for temporarilyconverting optical signals to electrical signals and then processing theelectrical signals.

When an optical switching apparatus as described above is practicallyused, it is important to provide an apparatus which is enhanced not onlyin basic performance of suppressing loss of optical signals power, butalso in reliability, availability and serviceability performance(hereinafter referred to as “RAS”). For example, there is consideredsuch a construction that the performance of signals to be transportedare monitored at a proper position, or such a construction that aredundant structure (for example, doubling) is adopted for a part of theapparatus and the route of signals is properly switched when theapparatus breaks down or the performance thereof is deteriorated.

The RAS enhancing means described above is practically used inconventional transmission apparatus and digital exchange in which dataare processed in the form of electrical signals. For example, in theconventional transmission apparatus using the electrical signalprocessing, it is little necessary to consider the time which isrequired to switch the route of signals by an electrical switch.Therefore, it is relatively easy to perform the switching operation withneither data lack nor data duplication (power-uninterruption) and apower-uninterruption switching function using a buffering techniquebased on a memory or the like is known.

As described above, optical signals are directly processed in OXC andOADM, and a mechanical type optical switch which is low insertion lossis frequently used as an optical switch serving as a main part forsetting a route. However, it is known that the mechanical type opticalswitch has a lower optical switching speed as compared with thetransmission speed of optical signals to be transmitted therethrough andseveral milli-seconds are needed to change the route. If the same signalroute switching operation as the conventional apparatus based on theelectrical signal processing is performed in OXC or OADM which directlyprocesses the optical signals, there would occur a power-interruptionthat no optical signal is output during the route switching operationfor the optical signals because of the low switching speed of theoptical switch as described above and thus the optical signalscorresponding to an extremely large amount of data are not passedthrough the optical switch concerned and thus lost. Accordingly, it isrequired to implement an optical signal switching apparatus havingexcellent RAS in consideration of the power-interruption inherent to theapparatus due to the optical signal processing as described above.

In OXC and OADM, a monitoring portion for monitoring various monitoringitems such as (1) power deterioration/interruption of optical signals,(2) the synchronous state of operating clocks, (3) the synchronous stateof optical signal frames, (4) the bit error rate of optical signals(hereinafter may be referred to as “BER”), etc. is provided in order tokeep the performance of the optical signals to be processed. When themonitoring portion detects a failure, the route of the optical signalsmay be switched to a normal one to thereby enhance RAS.

However, according to the apparatus having such a failure monitoringfunction, when the route setting is changed to enhance RAS, anunnecessary optical signal power interruption alarm, a bit error rateabnormality alarm, an out-of-sync alarm or the like may be detected inaccordance with the switching speed of the optical switch, the setupposition of the monitoring portion and the monitoring method.

Further, in a transmission system such as SONET/SDH or the like,monitoring control information is received/transmitted separately frommain signals between respective apparatuses constituting a network.Therefore, there may occur such a situation that an undesired alarmdetected when the route switching is carried out as described above isinformed as an error alarm to an apparatus located at the downstreamside in the travel direction of optical signals or an apparatus formonitoring and managing failures of the network even though theswitching operation of the optical switch is normal.

Still further, the monitoring portion checks normality of a new routeafter the route switching operation is carried out when some failureoccurs, and also monitors a restoration status of the old route underfailure. Accordingly, if the monitoring is not carried out inconsideration of the time required for the switching operation of theoptical switch and the operation time of the failure monitoringfunction, an error alarm may be informed to an apparatus at thedownstream side or a monitoring apparatus.

In such a case, even though a newly-switched route is normal, theswitching operation is induced to switch to another route again, so thatthe operations of individual apparatuses such as OXC, OADM, etc. and theoperation of a communication system (network) using these apparatusesmay be made unstable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, respective switching operation modesfor switching of a route setting and autonomic switching a redundantsystem and compulsory switching operations of are discriminated from oneanother so that the switching operations of these modes are notsimultaneously carried out. Further, proper mask processing is performedevery switching operation. Still further, control information on eachswitching operation is allowed to be received/transmitted betweencounter apparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which;

FIG. 1 is a network construction diagram showing the construction of acommunication network having an optical switching apparatus according toan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a basic construction diagram of the optical switchingapparatus of the embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows a bit map showing an example of the content of a alarmregister of the optical switching apparatus of the embodiment accordingto the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a state transition diagram of the optical switching apparatusof the embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the optical switchingapparatus of the embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a basic construction diagram showing the operation of theoptical switching apparatus of the embodiment according to theinvention.

FIG. 7 shows a bit map showing an example of the content of a maskmanaging memory of the optical switching apparatus of the embodimentaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows a bit map showing an example of the content of a maskregister of the optical switching apparatus of the embodiment accordingto the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a construction diagram showing the operation of the opticalswitching apparatus of the embodiment according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 10 shows a bit map showing an example of the content of the maskregister of the optical switching apparatus according to the embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 11 shows a bit map showing an example of the content of the maskregister of the optical switching apparatus according to the embodimentof the present invention; and

FIG. 12 is a construction diagram showing a second embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Preferred embodiments of the construction of an optical switchingapparatus according to the present invention and a method of using theapparatus will be described in detail with reference to the accompanyingdrawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the construction of a communication networkin which an optical signal switching apparatus is used.

Each of optical switching apparatuses 100, 110 of this embodiment isconnected to communication terminals (T) 120 working under the opticalswitching apparatus through optical fibers 210, and also mutuallyconnected to other optical switching apparatuses 100, 110 throughoptical fibers 200, thereby constructing a communication network. Asspecific using styles are known an optical cross connect apparatus (OXC)110 for switching the routes of multiplexed optical signals receivedfrom respective optical fibers 200 to optical fibers 200 serving asaddresses every signal and outputting these optical signals with beingmultiplexed, and an optical add-drop multiplexing apparatus (OADM) 100in which an optical signal needed every terminal 120 connected to theoptical add-drop multiplexing apparatus concerned (self apparatus) isswitched (inserted/removed) from multiplexed optical signals receivedfrom an optical fiber 200 and then the optical signal thus switched istransmitted/received by using an optical fiber 210.

According to the optical switching apparatus of this embodiment, byproperly selecting constituent parts, a communication network having aflexible configuration which can support various transmission speeds andvarious multiplex degrees of optical signals can be easily constructed.Further, it is needless to say that the optical switching apparatus ofthis embodiment has no restriction in the presence or absence ofwavelength multiplexing and the multiplex number of wavelengths.

Next, the construction of the optical switching apparatus of thisembodiment used as OADM or OXC shown in FIG. 1 will be described.

FIG. 2 shows the basic construction of the optical switching apparatusof this embodiment.

In the optical switching apparatus of this embodiment, for obtaininghigh reliability of the apparatus, a matrix switch for setting a routefor an optical signal is redundantly constructed by a first opticalswitch 405-1 and a second optical switch 405-2. In this embodiment, thenumber of input/output ports of the matrix switch is set to N (N×N), andthe ratio of the number of switches being actually used and the numberof spare switches is set to 1:1. However, only one spare switch may beprovided for plural (M) switches being actually used (that is, the ratiois set to M:1).

Branching portions 401 are provided for N input optical signals 400-11to 400-1N for the apparatus, and have the function of connecting eachinput optical signal to any one of the redundantly-arranged firstoptical switch 405-1 and second optical switch 405-2. Specifically, eachbranch portion 401 may be constructed by an optical switch havinginput/output ports shoes number is equal to 1×2, or electrical switchhaving input/output ports whose number is equal to 1×2 and anoptical/electrical converter and an electrical/optical converter whichare disposed respectively front and rear the electrical switch. Further,in the case of a hot standby system as described later, each branchportion 401 may comprise an optical coupler or the like.

Each of selecting portions 402 of N is provided in association with eachoutput port unit of the first and second optical switches 405-1 and405-2 (that is, each selecting portion 402 is connected to one outputterminal of the first optical switch 405-1 and one output terminal ofthe second optical switch 405-2) to select a signal for which the routeis set by any one of both the optical switches 405-1 and 405-2, andoutputs the signal as an output optical signal (400-21 to 2N) to theoutside of the apparatus. Specifically, each selecting portion 402 maycomprise an optical switch having input/output ports shoes number isequal to 1×2, or electrical switch having input/output ports whosenumber is equal to 2×1 and an optical/electrical converter and anelectrical/optical converter which are disposed respectively of frontand rear of the electrical switch.

There are two cases for the function of each of the branching portions401. One case is that optical signals are output from the branchingportion 401 to only one of the redundantly-arranged systems as describedabove (hereinafter referred to as “cool standby system”), and the othercase is that optical signals are output from the branching portion 401to both the redundantly-arranged systems (hereinafter referred to as“hot standby system”). This embodiment will be described on theassumption that each branching portion adopts the cool standby systemand each of the selecting portions 402 and the branching portions 401uses an optical switch.

Reference numeral 410 represents a performance monitoring portion, andthe contents to be monitored by the performance monitoring portions 410are the intensity of the optical signal, an optical-signal/noise ratio(OSNR), measurement values of Q-value serving as one of qualityparameters in optical communications, bit error rate (BER), etc.

A controller 420 performs the control of the route setting of the firstand second optical switches 405, the switching control of the branchingportions 401 and the selecting portions 402, and the processing ofalarms collected by the performance monitoring portions 410, etc.

An alarm interface portion 420-1 collects alarm information from eachperformance monitoring portion 410, and writes it into a alarm register420-2. FIG. 3 shows an example of a bit map of a alarm register. Theitems to be monitored contain optical signal intensity abnormality(POW), BER abnormality (BER), OSNR abnormality (SNR) and Q-valueabnormality (Q-value). The example of FIG. 3 corresponds to a case whereabnormality occurs due to break-down or the like in the output ports 1and 2 of the first optical switch 405-1.

All the alarms are detected in the performance monitoring portion 410-41which is directly connected to the output port 1 of the first opticalswitch 405-1, and BER abnormality and OSNR abnormality are detected inthe performance monitoring portion 410-42 which is directly connected tothe output port 2 (shown in FIG. 3.). Further, all the alarms areobserved in the performance monitoring portion 410-61 at the subsequentstage, and only OSNR abnormality is detected in the performancemonitoring portion 410-61.

A mask register 420-3 stores some alarm information of the alarminformation detected by the performance monitoring portion, which shouldbe masked (subjected to mask processing) so that they are not handled asalarm information under a specific condition.

CPU 420-10 performs comprehensive control of the switching apparatus ofthis embodiment. A timer 420-11 measures the continuation time of themask processing described above, and specifically, it comprises anup-counter for starting a count operation in response to an instructionof CPU or the like. A switching management memory 420-12 manages thesetup state of the communication route in the first and second opticalswitches 405, the branching portions 401 and the selecting portions 402.The mask management memory 420-13 presets and stores a mask pattern fordetermining the presence or absence of the mask processing and thecontinuation time of the mask processing which are predetermined everyalarm information collected by the performance monitoring portions ineach operation status of the optical switching apparatus describedlater. An I/O portion 420-14 is an interface between the opticalswitching apparatus of this embodiment and the external.

A driving portion 420-20 transmits driving signals to the first andsecond optical switches 405, the branching portions 401 and theselecting portions 402 in response to an instruction from CPU 420-10when a route switching operation described later or an autonomic(compulsory) redundant switching operation is carried out. Accordingly,if the input interface of the driving signals for the optical switches,etc. is regulated on the basis of analog signals, the optical switchdriving portion 420-20 necessarily has the digital-to-analog conversion(DA conversion) function.

Next, prior to description on the operation of the optical switchingapparatus of this embodiment, the route switching operation, theautonomic switching operation and the compulsory switching operationwill be described.

In this embodiment, the route switching operation is defined as anoperation of intentionally altering the setting of the communicationroute of the first or second optical switch 405 on the basis of arequest from the manager of a network or a user. For example, itcorresponds to a case where by OXC 110-1 of FIG. 1 the state that asignal received from the transmission route 200-2 is connected to asignal to be output to the transmission route 200-5 is changed to thestate that a signal received from the transmission route 200-2 isconnected to a signal to be output to the transmission route 200-9.

Such a route switching operating is carried out by altering the routesetting of the first or second optical switch 405 shown in FIG. 2. Theswitching control of the optical switch is carried out by transmittingthe driving signal from CPU 420-10 through the driving portion 420-20 tothe optical switch on the basis of a switching request from theexternal.

Further, the autonomic redundant switching operation in this embodimentmeans that when abnormality (break-down) in the in-use first opticalswitch 405-1 or the in-use second optical switch 405-2 is recognized onthe basis of alarm information from the performance monitoring portionor the like, the apparatus autonomically (with no instruction/nooperation of the manager) switches the current optical switch to theoptical switch of the system under no use in order to keep normality ofsubsequent communications. Of course, the manager can compulsorilyswitch the system of the current optical switch to another systemwithout any break-down. In this embodiment, such a switching operationwill be referred to as “compulsory redundant switching” in order todiscriminate it from the autonomic redundant switching operation.

In this specification, in the redundantly-arranged apparatuses, anapparatus being actually used will be referred to as “in-use apparatus”,and an apparatus which is actually on standby would be switched whensome break-down occurs in the in-use apparatus will be referred to as“spare apparatus”).

The compulsory redundant switching operation is carried out by switchingthe branching portion 401 and the selecting portion 402 to the sparesystem. In order to perform this control, CPU 420-10 of the controller420 transmits the driving signal through the optical switch drivingportion 420-20 to the optical switches of the branching portion 401 andthe selecting portion 402 in response to the switching request from theexternal.

If CPU 420-10 judges it on the basis of the alarm information from eachperformance monitoring portion 410 or the like that some break-downoccurs in the first (or second) optical switch of the in-use system, CPUtransmits the driving signal through the driving portion 420-20 to thebranching portion 401 and the selecting portion 402 to perform theautonomic redundant switching operation.

The compulsory redundant switching operation and the autonomic redundantswitching operation can be switched on a switch basis or everyconnection route of the optical switch. In the latter case, there may bepractically used a method of using the first optical switch 405-1 forsome connection route and the second optical switch 405-2 for anotherconnection route. In such a case, the branching portion 401 and theselecting portion 402 select the optical switches of the differentsystems, respectively.

Next, a mechanism of preventing occurrence of malfunction due topower-interruption of optical signals occurring in each optical switchwhen the route switching operation, the autonomic redundant switchingoperation or the compulsory switching operation is carried out will bedescribed.

In the controller 420, the mask processing to prevent alarm to berecognized under a specific operation condition can be carried out.

That is, the monitoring result (alarm) from each performance monitoringportion 410 is temporarily written into the alarm register 420-2 throughthe alarm interface portion 420-1.

Alarms to be subjected to the mask processing and alarms not to besubjected to the mask processing are stored in the mask register 420-3so as to be discriminated from each other in accordance with the alarmresult of the alarm register 420-2. For even the same alarm, thepresence or absence of the mask processing may be different inaccordance with the operation status of the optical switching apparatus(in addition to the normal practical-use state, the route switching, theautonomic redundant switching, the compulsory redundant switching,etc.), and thus the optimum mask pattern is selected from a maskmanagement memory 420-13 in accordance with the operation status andthen stored in to the mask register 420-3 previously.

On the basis of the monitoring results written in the alarm register420-2 and the contents of the mask register 420-3 which correspond tothe respective alarm results, CPU 420-10 judges whether the alarm is anoriginal alarm based on a break-down of the apparatus or the like(referred to as “break-down alarm”) or a pseudo-alarm detected due tothe switching operation or the like (referred to as “pseudo-alarm”).

Alternatively, if “presence of alarm” is recorded as a numerical value“1” in the alarm register 420-2 and “presence of mask” is recorded as anumerical value “0” in the mask register 420-3, by subjecting thecontents of the alarm register 420-2 and the mask register 420-3 to thelogical product operation (AND operation) every corresponding alarm, itis recognized that if the logical operation result is the numericalvalue “1”, an original alarm occurs. Accordingly, the presence orabsence of the break-down alarm can be processed in a hardware stylewithout using CPU 420-10.

Next, an operation of preventing occurrence of an undesired alarm at theroute switching time of the first and second optical switches 405 or atthe autonomic (compulsory) redundant switching time of the branchingportion 401 and the selecting portion 402 without reducing RAS in theoptical switching apparatus by using the mask processing function asdescribed above will be described.

First, the basic technical idea of this embodiment will be describedwith reference to the state transition diagram of the optical switchingapparatus of this embodiment shown in FIG. 4.

The optical switching apparatus of this embodiment has four operationstates, a normal practical-use state 500, a route switching state 501, acompulsory redundant switching state 502 and an autonomic redundantswitching state 503. The optical switching apparatus is practically usedso that these operation states are prevented from occurringsimultaneously.

If there is a route setting switching request 510 in the normalpractical-use state 500, the state is shifted to the route switchingstate 501. If a alarm mask of the route switching is released from thisstate (511), the state is returned to the normal practical-use state500. Likewise, if there is a compulsory redundant switching request 514in the normal practical-use state 500, the state is shifted to thecompulsory redundant switching state 502. If a alarm mask of thecompulsory redundant switching is released from this state (515), thestate is returned to the normal practical-use state 500.

On the other hand, when a alarm is detected in the normal practical-usestate 500 and it is judged that the alarm is caused by abnormality(break-down) of the first or second optical switching and thecommunications can be kept by switching to the spare system, the stateis shifted to the autonomic redundant switching state 503. For example,in the case where under the state that the first optical switch 405-1 isused as the in-use system and the second optical switch 405-2 is used asthe spare system, some alarm is observed in the performance monitoringportions 410-41 to 410-4N although no alarm is observed in theperformance monitoring portions 410-11 to 410-1N, 410-21 to 410-2N inFIG. 2, it is judged that a break-down occurs in the first opticalswitch 405-1 and the autonomic redundant switching to the second opticalswitch 405-2 is carried out.

In order to return the state from the redundant switching state (520) tothe normal practical-use state (500), it is carried out by the releasingthe mask for the switching in the autonomic redundant switchingoperation (545).

As described above, the apparatus according to this embodiment isdesigned so that various operations thereof which are factors causingalarms in the apparatus are executed independently of one another, sothat the break-down alarm detected due to abnormality, break-down or thelike and the pseudo-alarm detected due to the switching operation on thepractical use of the apparatus or the like are discriminated from eachother to prevent the malfunction, etc. On the basis of this technicalidea, the operation of the optical switching apparatus of thisembodiment will be described in detail hereunder.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart on the various switching operations of the opticalswitching apparatus of this embodiment.

First, if no alarm caused by a break-down of the first or second opticalswitch 405 of the in-use system is observed (“NO” judgment in step 600),there is no request to change the route setting of both the opticalswitches 405 (“NO” judgment in step 610) and there is no request for thecompulsory redundant switching (“NO” judgment in step 620), a normaloperation loop shown by 500′ is repeated. This processing corresponds tothe normal practical-use state 500 shown in FIG. 4.

When another alarm which seems to be irrelative to the break-down ofboth the optical switches 405 is observed at each performance monitoringportions in the normal operating loop 500′, some appropriate processing(not shown) associated with restoration of the failure is separatelyexecuted.

When a alarm on the optical switch of the in-use system is observed inthe normal operating loop 500′ (“YES” judgment in step 600), whichperformance monitoring portion should be subjected to the maskprocessing when the autonomic redundant switching operation is carriedout is set as a mask pattern C (step 632).

FIG. 6 shows an example case where a failure 490-11 occurs in aselecting route 470-1N of the first switch 405-1 of the in-use systemand thus a alarm is observed in the performance monitoring portion410-4N and the performance monitoring portion 410-6N at thesubsequent-stage, so that the autonomic redundant switching operation iscarried out to select a selecting route 470-2N of the second opticalswitch 405-2 as a spare route.

In the case of the cool standby system using the first optical switch405-1 as the in-use system in FIG. 6, in order to prevent detection ofany alarm caused by abnormality of the optical output intensity or thelike which is caused because no optical signal reaches the performancemonitoring portions 410-31 to 410-3N, 410-51 to 410-5N before theautonomic redundant switching operation, it is necessary to stop theoperation of the performance monitoring portions or prohibit any actionfrom being taken even when some alarm is detected.

In this embodiment, the autonomic redundant switching operation iscarried out on a route basis, and the branching route of the branchingportion 401-1 is switched from 480-11 to 480-12 while the selectingroute of the selecting portion 402-N is switched from 481-N1 to 481-N2.Accordingly, in order to mask the alarm observed when the switchingoperation of the branching portion and the selecting portion is carriedout, the mask is set to the performance monitoring portions 410-21,410-31, 410-5N and 410-6N on these routes. With respect to theperformance monitoring portion 410-4N, the failure 490-11 of the opticalswitch 405-1 is detected as a break-down alarm before the autonomicredundant switching operation is carried out, and thus the setting ofthe mask processing is set to “absence” in this case. However, there isno problem even though the mask processing is set. When the autonomicredundant switching operation is based on the hot standby system, thatis, when signals are output from the branching portion 401-1 to both thefirst and second optical switches 405-1 and 405-2, the performancemonitoring portions 410-21 and 410-31 are unnecessary.

Which performance monitoring portion should be subjected to the masksetting as described above and the continuation time (duration) thereofare preset as a mask pattern in the mask management memory 420-13 shownin FIG. 6 or FIG. 2. FIG. 7 shows an example of the recording content ofthe mask management memory 420-13.

In FIG. 7, the numeric value “1” indicating “presence” of the maskprocessing and the numeric value “0” indicating “absence” of the maskprocessing are recorded as mask patterns A to M for every monitoringitem of each performance monitoring portion 410. The numeric values atthe lower stage of FIG. 7 show the continuation time (duration), and the20 unit thereof is milli-second: msec or the like.

For example, in a mask pattern C, the mask processing of “presence” isset to all the alarms such as optical output abnormality, BERabnormality, OSNR abnormality and Q-value abnormality for theperformance monitoring portion 410-21 and the continuation time(duration) is set to 0.1, 1300, 1.2, 2.1 msec for these alarms,respectively (shown in FIG. 7). On the other hand, for the performancemonitoring portion 410-5n, the mask processing “presence” is likewiseset to all the alarms, however, the continuation time (duration) is setto 0.3, 1800, 1.5 and 2.8 msec for these alarms, so that the maskprocessing continuation time (duration) of the performance monitoringportion 410-5n is set to be longer than that of the performancemonitoring portion 410-21. This is an example based on the assumptionthat the time required for the switching is longer in the optical switchof (N×N) used for the first and second optical switches 405 is longerthan that in the optical switch of (1×2) used in the branch portion 401.

CPU 420-10 writes the content read out from the monitoring managementmemory 420-13 into the mask register 420-3 to substantially start themask processing (step 632). FIG. 8 shows the content set in the maskregister 420-3 when the autonomic redundant switching operation in thepresent embodiment is carried out. Accordingly, in this case, the totalmask number (n3) in step 632 is equal to 16.

When the mask pattern C is set, the counting operation of a timer isstarted (step 640). This is used to measure the continuation time(duration) for the various mask processing described later.

The autonomic redundant switching operation is carried out by thebranching portion 401-1 and the selecting portion 402-N (step 652). Atthis time, by the switching operation of the branching portion 401-1 andthe selecting portion 402-N, a alarm based on optical signal outputinterruption or the like may be observed in the performance monitoringportions 410-21, 410-31, 410-5N, 410-6N. However, since the maskprocessing is carried out previously, it is not recognized as anundesired alarm at the other sites in/out of the apparatus concerned.

Next, if there is a route switching request (610) in the normaloperating loop 500′ of the flow of FIG. 5, a mask pattern B for theroute switching is set into the mask register 420-3 (step 631), and theroute switching operation is likewise carried out (step 651) after thetimer is started (640).

For example as shown in FIG. 9, when the state that the selecting routes470-11 and 470-21 are set in the first and second optical switches 405respectively is switched to the state that the selecting routes 470-1Nand 470-2N are set in the first and second optical switches 405respectively, in the case of the hot standby system using the firstoptical switch 405-1 as the in-use system, the performance monitoringportions 410-41, 410-4N, 410-61, 410-6N in which alarms are expected tobe detected are targeted for the mask processing.

FIG. 10 shows the content of the mask register 420-3 in the mask patternB when the route switching operation is carried out. By carrying outsuch mask setting previously, an undesired alarm can be prevented frombeing recognized in/out of the apparatus concerned when the routeswitching operation is carried out.

Further, if there is a compulsory redundant switching request (620) inthe normal practical use state 500′ of the flow of FIG. 5, a maskpattern A for the compulsory redundant switching operation is set in themask register 420-3 (step 630). After the timer is started (640), themask processing is executed (step 640).

Here, as in the case of the autonomic redundant switching operation, thecompulsory redundant switching operation is carried out on anoptical-switch (405) basis or every specific route set in the opticalswitch 405. FIG. 11 shows a mask pattern when the compulsory redundantswitching operation from the selecting route 470-1N to the selectingroute 470-2N is carried out on a route basis shown in FIG. 6. Thedifference from the mask pattern C when the autonomic redundantswitching operation in FIG. 8 is carried out resides in the presence orabsence of the mask processing for the performance monitoring portion410-4N. That is, in the compulsory redundant switching operation, it isassumed that no break-down alarm is detected in the normal operation,and thus the mask processing is necessary for the performance monitoringportion 410-4N.

When a predetermined time elapses after the route switching operation,the autonomic redundant switching operation or the compulsory redundantswitching operation is carried out, the mask processing which has beenset is released. The continuation time (duration) until the maskprocessing is released may be varied in accordance with the performancemonitoring position or the type of the alarm, and thus it is stored inthe monitoring management memory 420-13 shown in FIG. 3 (6, 9 or thelike) previously together with the mask pattern. For convenience' sakeof description, alarm masks (i) are called as (i=1, 2, 3, . . . ) inincreasing order of the continuation time (duration) in each maskpattern.

In CPU 420-10, the continuation time (duration) thus stored and thecount value of the timer 420-11 are compared with each other to judgefor a specific alarm mask (i) whether the release time thereof haspassed (step 660). If the release time has passed, the setting of thealarm mask (i) in the mask register 420-11 is released (step 670).

The above mask releasing processing is repeated while incrementing i oneby one until i=1 to n1 (n2, n3) (step 690), and the processing isfinally returned to the normal operation loop (500′) when the release ofall the alarm masks is completed (step 680).

As described above, according to the present invention, the operationmodes of the route switching operation, the autonomic redundantswitching operation and the compulsory redundant switching operation arediscriminated from one another, and these operation modes are preventedfrom being executed at the same time. In addition, proper maskprocessing is carried out for every switching operation. Therefore,occurrence of an undesired alarm when each switching operation iscarried out and a malfunction caused by the occurrence of the undesiredalarm can be prevented.

Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, the apparatus has such aconstruction that with respect to all the alarms detected by theperformance monitoring portions, emission of only alarms set in the maskregister is prevented. However, on the basis of the same technical idea,the apparatus may be designed so that only alarms which can be emittedare separately stored previously and a alarm detected by the performancemonitoring portion is output only when it can be emitted.

Next, a second embodiment according to the present invention will bedescribed. In this embodiment, communications are carried out between atransmission terminal 805-1 and a reception terminal 805-2 by using atransmitter 800 and a receiver 801.

The transmitter 800 and the receiver 801 are connected to each other byredundantly-arranged transmission routes 810-4 and 810-5, and alsooptical switches 830-1, 830-2 and 831-1, 831-2 for setting the route areredundantly arranged in each of apparatuses. Another communicationapparatus (not shown) may exist between the transmitter 800 and thereceiver 801. For example, a terminal 805-1, the transmitter 800, thereceiver 801 and a reception terminal 805-2 correspond to the terminal120-11, OADM 100-1, OADM 100-6 and the terminal 120-61. In this case,the transmission route 810-4 corresponds to the transmission route200-1, OADM 100-2, the transmission route 200-2, OXC 110-1, thetransmission route 200-6, OXC 110-3, the transmission route 200-7, OXC110-2, the transmission route 200-12, OADM 100-4 and the transmissionroute 200-13 shown in FIG. 1, for example. Further, in this case, thetransmission route 810-5 corresponds to the transmission route 200-3,OADM 100-3, the transmission route 200-4, OXC 110-1, the transmissionroute 200-5, OXC 110-2, the transmission route 200-14, OADM 100-5 andthe transmission route 200-15 shown in FIG. 1, for example.

In this embodiment, the autonomic redundant switching operations (andthe compulsory redundant switching operations) of the redundant opticalswitches and the redundant transmission routes are carried out incombination with each other. That is, a communication route includingthe connection of the first optical switch 830-1 of the transmitter 800,the first transmission route 810-4 and the first optical switch 831-1 ofthe receiver 801 is set as “0-system”, a communication route includingthe connection of the second optical switch 830-2 of the transmitter800, the second transmission route 810-5 of the transmitter 800, thesecond transmission route 810-5 and the second optical switch 831-2 ofthe receiver 801 is set as “1-system”, and the autonomic redundantswitching operation or the compulsory redundant switching operation iscarried out between the 0-system and the 1-system on a system basis.

An input optical signal 810-1 having a single wavelength from thetransmission terminal 805-1 to the transmitter 800 is branched by abranching portion 820-1, and input to one of the first optical switch830-1 and the second optical switch 830-2 which are redundantlyarranged. The signal for which the route setting is carried out by theseoptical switches 830 is wavelength-multiplexed into awavelength-multiplexed signal by a wavelength multiplexing apparatus850-2 or 850-4, and then output to one of the first transmission route810-4 and the second transmission route 810-5 which are redundantlyarranged.

At the receiver 801 at the counter side, the wavelength-multiplexedsignal received through the first or second transmission route 810-4 or810-5 is separated into single-wavelength signals by a wavelengthseparator 851-2 or 851-4. The respective optical signals are subjectedto the route setting by the first optical switch 831-1 and the secondoptical switch 831-2, and any one of the optical signals is selected bya selecting portion 861-1 and output as a single-wavelength outputsignal 810-8 to the reception terminal 805-2.

Performance monitoring portions 840, 841 are arranged in front and rearof the first and second optical switches 830, 831 in the transmitter 800and the receiver 801 so that the performance monitoring portions 840,841 monitors the performance of the respective optical signals tothereby achieve proper RAS. The internal construction and functions ofcontrollers 820 and 821 in both the transmitter and the receiver are thesame as described in the above-described embodiment, and thus thedescription thereof is omitted. However, I/O portions 820-14 and 821-14are connected to each other through a communication route 890 so thatinformation needed for the switching control can bereceived/transmitted. Further, when another communication apparatus (notshown) exists between the transmitter 800 and the receiver 801, thesecond embodiment of the present invention may be constructed so thatthe communication (transmission/reception) of the switching controlinformation with the communication apparatus can be performed.

In FIG. 12, only the single input/output signal is illustrated forconvenience' sake. However, not only the input and output signals 810-1and 810-8, but also other input and output signals actually exist.Therefore, plural branching portions 820-1, plural selecting portions861-1 and plural performance monitoring portions 840, 841 are providedin association with the plural input and output signals. Further, eachof the input signal 810-1 and the output signal 810-8 is asingle-wavelength signal, and the wavelength of each signal may bevaried every in port or invariable.

As in the case of the above-described embodiment, change of theconnection route setting of each of the optical switches 830, 831 of thetransmitter 800 and the receiver 801 will be referred to as “routeswitching”, an operation of autonomically performing the switchingoperation between the 0-system and the 1-system by the apparatus whenabnormality occurs will be referred to as “autonomic redundant switchingoperation”, and an operation of compulsorily performing the systemswitching operation between the redundant systems will be referred to as“compulsory redundant switching operation”. The autonomic redundantswitching operation and the compulsory redundant switching operation arecarried out by the switching operation of the branching portion 820-1 ofthe transmitter 800 and the selecting portion 861-1 of the receiver 801.

In this embodiment, the mask processing described in the above-describedembodiment is carried out in each of the transmitter 800 and thereceiver 801, and the communication (reception/transmission) of thealarm information and various switching control information is carriedout between the transmitter 800 and the receiver 801 through I/Os820-14, 821-14 and the communication route 890, whereby emission ofundesired alarms, malfunction due to the undesired alarms, etc. can beprevented.

For example, when the route switching of the first optical switch 830-1of the transmitter 800 is carried out, the controller 820 selects aproper mask pattern and sets it into the mask register 820-3 before theswitching operation. At the same time, information on the routeswitching is transmitted from the I/O portion 820-14 through thecommunication route 890 and the 1/0 portion 821-14 to the controller 821of the receiver 801, and a proper mask pattern is also set into eachalarm monitoring portion of the receiver 801.

The same is satisfied with respect to the autonomic redundant switchingoperation. For example, when the break-down of the first optical switch830-1 of the transmitter 800 is detected by the performance monitoringportion 840-2, the controller 820 selects a mask pattern and switchesthe branching portion 820-1 to the second optical switch 830-2 side. Atthe same time, information on this autonomic redundant switchingoperation is transmitted through the communication route 890 to thereceiver 801. After a proper mask pattern is set, the selecting portion861-1 is switched to the second optical switch 831-2 side, therebyperforming the autonomic redundant switching operation.

When the break-down of the first optical switch 831-1 of the receiver801 is detected by the performance monitoring portion 841-2, thecontroller 821 selects a proper mask pattern, and switches the selectingportion 861-1 to the second optical switch 831-2 side. At the same time,the information on the autonomic redundant switching is transmittedthrough the communication route 890 to the transmitter 800. After aproper mask pattern is set, the branching portion 820-1 is switched tothe second optical switch 830-2 side, thereby performing the autonomicredundant switching operation.

The specific procedure of the alarm mask processing described above,etc. are the same as the above-described embodiment, and thus thedescription thereof is omitted.

The communication route 890 may be a physically separate line as shownin FIG. 12, or the signal of the communication route 890 may bewavelength-multiplexed to an optical main signal or the communicationroute 890 logically connected by an external controller (not shown) orthe like.

When another communication apparatus (not shown) exists between thetransmitter 800 and the receiver 801, the same mask processing iscarried out on the communication apparatus by the transmission/receptionof the control information through the communication route 890.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, thetransmission/reception of the control information on each switchingoperation is performed between the apparatuses on the transmissionroute, so that when the switching operation is carried out on anapparatus, and an undesired alarm can be prevented from occurring in anapparatus at the downstream side of the apparatus concerned.

According to the present invention described above, emission of anundesired alarms can be prevented and thus occurrence of malfunction canbe prevented when the route switching, the autonomic redundant switchingor the compulsory redundant switching of the optical switch is carriedout, so that a stable optical switching apparatus having highreliability can be practically used.

1-16. cancelled.
 17. An optical switching apparatus comprising: anoptical switch which has plural input portions and plural outputportions, carries out switching of a rout of an optical signal totransmit the optical signal from an arbitrary input portion among saidplural input portions to an arbitrary output portion among said pluraloutput portions, monitoring portions each of which monitors the opticalsignal from one of the plural output portions of said optical switch andtransmits a signal based on the result of the monitoring, a controllerwhich receives the signals from said monitoring portions and instructsthe optical switch to switch according to the signal thus received,wherein, said controller has a storing portion which stores in advance,that an output portion which is compulsorily switched in the case thatthe switching of said optical switch is compulsorily carried out, andwhen said switching has been compulsorily carried out and the signal isreceived from said monitoring portion, said controller discriminateswhether said monitoring portion which outputted the signal monitors theoptical signal outputted from the output portion stored in said storingportion.
 18. An optical switching apparatus comprising: a plurality ofbranching portions each of which switches a destination of an inputtedoptical signal to any one of two output portions. a first optical switchto which an optical signal outputted from one of the two output portionsof said branching portion is inputted and which outputs said opticalsignal from an arbitrary output portion among a plurality of outputportions. a second optical switch to which an optical signal outputtedfrom the other of the two output portions of said branching portion isinputted and which outputs said optical signal from an arbitrary outputportion among a plurality of output portions. a plurality of selectingportions each of which receives an optical signal from one of the outputportions of said first optical switch and an optical signal from one ofthe output portions of said second optical switch respectively, andselects one from the two optical signals thus received to and output it,monitoring portions each of which monitors an optical signal between oneof said branching portions and one of said selecting portions andoutputs a signal according to the result of said monitoring, and acontroller which received the signals from said monitoring portions andinstructs at least one of the branching portions and the selectingportions that whether an inputted optical signal is to be outputted fromwhich output portion or whether an optical signal to be outputted is tobe inputted from which input portion, according to said signal thusreceived, wherein, said controller has a storing portion which stores inadvance, that a branching portion or selecting portion is compulsorilyswitched in the case that switching of the branching portions or theselecting portions is compulsorily carried out, and when said switchinghas been compulsorily carried out and the signal is received from saidmonitoring portion, said controller discriminates whether saidmonitoring portion which outputted the signal monitors the opticalsignal outputted from the branching portion or to said selecting portionstored in said storing portion.